Most Profitable Acre Challenge Grand Prize Winner Announced

Jan 03, 2013

Perth County Cash Crop Farmer Wins Most Profitable Acre Challenge

A Perth County cash crop farmer is the grand prize winner of the new competition open to Ontario farmers called the Most Profitable Acre Challenge.

The competition put on by the Agriculture Management Institute, who promotes innovative ways of thinking about farm business management practices, awarded Mark Brock this year’s Grand Prize for Most Profitable Acre Challenge. Brock, who manages a 1,500 acre cash crop farm alongside his wife near Staffa, Ontario, is the first winner of the new award.

“The business side of cropping is just as important as actually growing the crop. I’m already working on cost of production and developing marketing plans for the next season, I track things like costs, yields and market prices and that has a pretty big impact on decisions we make on how to market our crops,” Mark Brock said in a press release.

The Most Profitable Acre challenge looks at a number of variables such as the cost of inputs, production practices which include yield and marketing tactics. All of these factors combined help determine what is the most profitable acre for either corn or soybeans.

The top corn and soybean participants were graded against each other to demine the overall winner, with the top three runners up also receiving recognition. The grand prize winner receives an all-expenses paid trip to this year’s International Farm Management Association congress being held in Poland.

“I’m looking forward to meeting other farmers from around the world. Even though you come from different areas and grow different crops, you share a lot of common issues, I’m also interested to learn more about agriculture in the European Union and how farmers work within their much stricter environmental regulations,” said Brock.

More information about the challenge can be found on the Agriculture Management Institute website at: http://www.takeanewapproach.ca/challenge.aspx

Video: A chain harrow is a game changer

Utilizing a rotational grazing method on our farmstead with our sheep helps to let the pasture/paddocks rest. We also just invested in a chain harrow to allow us to drag the paddocks our sheep just left to break up and spread their manure around, dethatch thicker grass areas, and to rough up bare dirt areas to all for a better seed to soil contact if we overseed that paddock. This was our first time really using the chain harrow besides initially testing it out. We are very impressed with the work it did and how and area that was majority dirt, could be roughed up before reseeding.

Did you know we also operate a small business on the homestead. We make homemade, handcrafted soaps, shampoo bars, hair and beard products in addition to offering our pasture raised pork, lamb, and 100% raw honey. You can find out more about our products and ingredients by visiting our website at www.mimiandpoppysplace.com. There you can shop our products and sign up for our monthly newsletter that highlights a soap or ingredient, gives monthly updates about the homestead, and also lists the markets, festivals, and events we’ll be attending that month.